


Maybe I Get Angry Sometimes Too

by EmperorNorton150



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Almost Blew Up The Planet Squad, Angst, Canon Compliant, Catra and Glimmer's friendship is very important to me, Gen, Post-Canon, ok?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:08:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26165416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmperorNorton150/pseuds/EmperorNorton150
Summary: “Yeah, yeah, I know. But I, um, I don’t want Adora to see me fighting like this.” Catra and Glimmer’s eyes were both drawn inexorably to the torso of the dummy, its back carved up by claw marks. Stuffing flowed like a river across the floor from the punctures. “I…...I haven’t changed as much as you like to think I have” she murmured, staring at the mosaic tiles of the floor, unable to look the Queen in the eye. “One of these days I’m not just gonna murder a practice dummy.” There was another long silence.Then Glimmer raised her arm, and a pellet of purple fire rocketed out of the center of her palm and exploded the remains of the manikin with a crack of thunder and a billow of fire. Cinders and bits of charred fabric rained down. Catra yelped, leaping to her feet.“Maybe I get angry sometimes too” Glimmer said softly
Relationships: Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 73





	Maybe I Get Angry Sometimes Too

Catra hit the practice dummy feet-first, crushing its rib-cage in while ripping open its elbows with her claws, leaving both arms dangling uselessly. She bounced off it, grabbed an exercise bar and swung herself back towards it, ripping a long gash down the spine as she passed before landing in a crouch, rolling, then flinging herself up again. She leapt through the air and descended on the dummy, digging her claws into its shoulders and tearing open the throat with her fangs. She shook it like a rat, ripping off the head and tossing it against the wall, where it hit with a _thump_. The manikin swayed wildly but she held her pose with ease, the panting of her breath the only sound in the darkened practice hall.

“You know, I _thought_ we were missing a few of those things”. Catra yelped and crashed to the ground. The speaker, a diminutive pink-haired woman in a nightgown, pushed off from against the wall where she’d been lurking. Catra arose with a growl.

“Sparkles? What are you doing here?” Glimmer shrugged.

“Couldn’t sleep. You?”

“Same.” Glimmer looked at the decapitated, disemboweled practice dummy, then at the remains of three more scattered across the room. Then she looked back at Catra and raised an eyebrow.

“That’s all?”

“ _Yes_.” Catra shook the sweat from her fur and stalked towards the door, scowling at the Queen of Bright Moon as she passed her.

“People besides me are going to notice there’s half as many dummies as there used to be eventually” Glimmer called out behind. “They’re gonna talk.” Catra paused. She…...had a point, damn her. And if there was one thing Catra wanted to avoid it was more Stories about her. She was already sick and tired of seeing servants whispering every time she turned her back, or staring at her, or abruptly ending conversations when she entered a room. The former Force Captain glared back over her shoulder, to see the princess looking at her levelly. “So……” she prompted invitingly. Catra thought about ignoring her anyways but…...this was _sparkles_. Catra trusted Glimmer. Absolutely. She might want to strangle the shimmery little princess half the time, but they’d seen each other at their absolute worst and come through it together. She knew she could tell Glimmer anything, and she wouldn’t be judgmental or shocked or disgusted. With a resigned flick of her ears, she sank down against the wall, and pulled her knees up against her chest. Glimmer propped herself against a rack of quarterstaffs and looked at her, silently. Waiting.

“I….today….I just….I’ve just been angry all day” Catra finally got out after a long moment of silence. Her tail was lashing back and forth. “Not at anyone or anything just…...pissed off. In general.” _Angry_ was a pallid word to describe the feeling building in her chest since this morning, the wave of rage that had made her want to scream at Netossa for laughing too much at lunch or the spike of fury that had hammered through her head that afternoon when Adora had made a stupid joke. She’d almost put a fist through the wall. But she thought Glimmer probably understood. “It happens sometimes. I feel better when I rip something into pieces”.

“Catra, taking out your anger in exercise isn’t something to be ashamed of. It’s healthy! It’s a sign that you’re controlling yourself.”

“Yeah, yeah, I _know._ But I, um, I don’t want Adora to see me fighting like this.” Catra and Glimmer’s eyes were both drawn inexorably to the torso of the dummy, its back carved up by claw marks. Stuffing flowed like a river across the floor from the punctures.

“Ah” said Glimmer at last. Catra scowled at her. She and Adora sparred all the time, with swords and staves or their bare hands. It was fun. It was good practice. But it wasn’t the same as taking something and tearing and ripping and _smashing_ it until her arms throbbed with pain and all the anger and energy had drained from her body. _Fighting like an animal_ whispered a voice in the back of Catra’s mind. “I…...I haven’t changed as much as you like to think I have” she murmured, staring at the mosaic tiles of the floor, unable to look the Queen in the eye. “One of these days I’m not just gonna murder a practice dummy.” There was another long silence, the quiet building up in the starlit room like an invisible force until it was almost deafening in its emptiness. Then Glimmer raised her arm, and a pellet of purple fire rocketed out of the center of her palm and exploded the remains of the manikin with a crack of thunder and a billow of fire. Cinders and bits of charred fabric rained down.

“What the _fuck!_ ” shouted Catra, leaping halfway to her feet.

“Maybe I get angry sometimes too” Glimmer said softly, not a hint of a smile on her face. “Maybe sometimes I just want to blow something up.”

“Hmmmm” said Catra, settling back down. “Ambassador from Betelgeuse causing problems? I didn’t get a chance to review the notes from your meeting yet.”

“He’s an asshole, and I have to spend another four hours tomorrow trying to explain the basic economic realities of a pre-industrial society to him. I’ve been wanting to do _that_ ” a nod at the smoldering pile of plastic and putty “to something all day.”

“So why didn’t you _Your Highness?_ It’s your castle.” 

“Maybe I don’t want to remind people of my failures either.” Catra snorted.

“Oh what, you worried Bow’s gonna run away if he sees you get a little testy? Please. You’ve got Arrow Boy wrapped around your finger” she said with a mix of scorn and admiration. Glimmer made a face.

“You should’ve seen him right after you rescued me from Prime.” Unconsciously, Catra rubbed at the back of her neck. Neither girl acknowledged it. “He barely spoke to me at all for days. He barely acknowledged my existence. I was so scared he was going to hate me _forever_.”

“Hard to imagine Bow angry at all” commented Catra.

“Yeah, he’s a lover at heart” replied Glimmer with a quick grin. “But that just means that when he gets mad, he gets _really_ mad. And I can’t really blame him. I mean, Prime found Etheria because of _me_. All the damage, all the deaths, all the heartbreak…...that’s on me. He and Adora warned me about the Heart, I ignored them, and the entire _universe_ was almost _destroyed_ as a result. Sometimes I can’t believe he forgave me at all.”

“So, you made a mistake. If I’d been up against me, I would’ve done anything to stop me too. No one holds it against you that you tried to save the world, even if you did screw it up.”

“It—it wasn’t like that. I was barely thinking about you or Hordak or the war. I just wanted to put Adora in her place, to prove to her that I could be Queen. I was so prideful, so _arrogant_ , that I let a crazy hologram almost blow up the planet and brainwash my best friend, just because my feelings were hurt.” Catra glared across the room, and jabbed a finger at her friend.

“That’s bullshit, and you know it. You were trying to stop a _certain_ _lunatic_ from conquering Etheria. You’re annoying sparkles, don’t get me wrong. But you’re not a monster. _Trust me_. I’d know.”

“It wasn’t just the Heart!” Glimmer’s shout echoed through the cavernous hall, and she winced, before continuing at a lower volume. “I was so awful to them—to Bow and Adora and the rest of the Princesses. I bullied them, I ordered them around, I used Adora as a decoy, I tried to control them, I—”

“It was a war” said Catra flatly.

“Oh what, so that’s an excuse?!”

“No. But—damnit princess, nobody comes out of a war without _something_ terrible to _someone_. Don’t start thinking you’re special.”

“Most people don’t almost destroy the world!” Catra shrugged.

“You’re the Queen. That means everything you do reverberates. Has consequences and shit. Doesn’t make you any worse. You do what you have to do when your back’s against the wall.”

“And if I do it again? If I get pissed off and full of myself and start ignoring my friends and go off half-cocked and screw everything up again?”

“Well, that would be bad. But c’mon sparkles, you can’t start feeling guilty about shit you haven’t _done_ yet. You’re letting the worst thing you did define the rest of your life. That’s ridiculous.” Glimmer stared at Catra, her eyes glinting in the darkness against the shadowy outline of her body.

“So, what you’re saying” she said slowly “is that I should accept the bad things I’ve done but not obsess over them? That I shouldn’t assume that I’m doomed to repeat them or that people will always judge me by them?”

“Sure. You’ve made mistakes, but you’ve also made up for them. Bow knew what you’d done when he forgave you, and he knows who you are now, he’s not gonna turn on you one day if you slip up or don’t do everything perfect—” Catra froze, and her eyes widened. “Oh, _fuck you_ ” she hissed. Glimmer grinned and disappeared with a pop, materializing on top of Catra where she threw her arms around the other girl, giggling.

“Wow Catra, thanks! You give _such_ good advice!”

“Shut up” growled Catra, but she made no attempt to escape the embrace. 

“Never” proclaimed Glimmer, and kept snickering. Catra sighed, and wrapped her tail around the other girl’s leg.

“It doesn’t work that way for people like me” she mumbled finally. “You’re a good person, mostly.”

“And you’re not?” asked Glimmer. Catra was quiet. “Catra, there’s no such thing. People are just people. We do stuff—good or bad—and then we have to deal with the consequences. I don’t get to make excuses ‘cause I’m a fancy princess, and you don’t have to condemn yourself or whatever ‘cause you’re not.” 

“You’re sure about that, huh?”

“Of course. I’m the Queen. That means I’m always right.” Catra made a small sound that might have been a smothered chuckle.

“Fine, fine. I promise I’ll think happy thoughts. Now will you get off me?” Glimmer rose, leaning down to help pull Catra to her feet. She flicked her ears and stretched. “Thanks. Are, uhh, are you gonna tell Adora about this?”

“Not if you don’t want me to.”

“I will eventually! Really, I get it. Just not yet?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks” she repeated. “And, uhh, I’ll try to stop destroying your stuff. So much.”

“Honestly, it’s fine. Just, like, tell me so I can tell the armorer to commission some more practice dummies.” Catra blinked.

“You sure?”

“Hey, if eviscerating some manikins helps you cope, I’m not gonna stop you. Besides, I’ve still got some frustrations of my own to work out.” She nodded at the line of remaining targets lined up against the far wall, and then smirked. “I’d suggest a friendly little competition _but_ ” she wiggled her fingers, sending out a little cloud of sparks “it wouldn’t really be fair to you, would it?” Catra’s ears flattened and she flexed her claws.

“Oh, just _try me_ sparkles.”

* * *

Light beamed through the windows of Bright Moon, the dew was glistening on the grass, and the birds were singing as Adora trotted through the halls of the castle. It was just after dawn, but unlike Catra, who would happily sleep till noon if allowed, Adora had never lost the Horde’s regimented schedule. She didn’t mind. There was something wonderfully relaxing about being one of the only people awake, like all her responsibilities and cares slumbered with the rest of the kingdom’s population. And it let her get in some training by herself. Not that she didn’t enjoy sparring with Catra! But she loved the simple peace of putting in an hour of exercise totally by herself, with no witnesses or partners, nothing but the hammering of her heart and the sweet ache of pushing herself to her limits. Whistling a jaunty tune, she turned the corner into the practice hall—and froze. What looked like every single practice dummy, portable target, and item of furniture in the gym had been destroyed. Or, better to say, obliterated. Pieces of wood and scraps of fabric carpeted the floor, which was covered in scorch marks and deep scratches. Half the windows were broken, the glass bubbled and melted down the side of the walls or scattered in shards across the room. A halberd and two swords were embedded in one of the ceiling beams. Across the room the castle armorer stood frozen. His eyes met Adora’s and he shrugged.

“I got nothing.”

**Author's Note:**

> \- Just a quick scene idea that popped into my head that I wanted to write out.


End file.
